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Page 47
His reverence for holy things was very great. He relished a joke as well
as any man, indeed, there was a good deal of humour in him; but woe to
that man who spoke jestingly of the things pertaining to God. The Word
of the Lord was too real and too important for any triviality. God was
ever present to him, and he lived for God. His son says: "Even when I
was alone with him, on some of his itinerating journeys, no meal was
commenced without a reverent doffing of the Scotch bonnet, his usual
head-dress in those days, and the solemn blessing; and our morning and
evening worship was never missed or hurried."
An instance of his forbearance under provocation is afforded in the
following:--
"On our return from England in 1843," says the writer just quoted, "we
were a large party, with three or four waggons. One night we outspanned
in the dark, not knowing that we were on forbidden ground--within the
limits of a farm, but a half-mile short of the homestead. In the early
morning a young man rode up, and demanded to know what we were doing
there without leave. My father gently explained that we had done it in
ignorance, but his explanation was cut short by a harangue loud and
long. The stripling sat on his horse, my father stood before him with
bowed head and folded arms, whilst a torrent of abuse poured over him,
with a plentiful mixture of such terse and biting missiles of invective
as greatly enrich the South African Dutch language. We stood around and
remembered that only a few months before the man thus rated like a dog
was standing before enthusiastic thousands in England, who hung with
bated breath upon his utterances. Something of shame must have arrested
the wrath of the young man, for he suddenly rode away without impounding
our cattle, as he had threatened to do. We inspanned and proceeded,
calling on our way at the house, and there we found ourselves received
by a venerable white-haired farmer and his wife with open arms, for they
and my parents proved to be old friends. Right glad were we that nothing
had been done on our side to make us ashamed to meet them."
In his home he was a true father, and the influence that surrounded his
children must have been a happy one, seeing that so many of them
embraced the missionary calling, and followed in the footsteps of their
venerated parents. Mary, the eldest daughter, married Dr. Livingstone;
Ann, the French missionary, Jean Fr�doux; Bessie, a younger daughter,
was united to the Rev. Roger Price; and a son, the Rev. John Moffat,
became for a time his father's coadjutor at the Kuruman station.
In bringing this memoir to a conclusion, we may be permitted to glance
at South Africa as it is at the present time, and to note some of the
contrasts between its condition now, and that as stated in our opening
chapter, prior to Robert Moffat's arrival.
At the time when he first landed at Cape Town, the work of evangelising
the heathen was confined principally to two Societies--the Moravian
Mission and the London Missionary Society. Now the Societies exceed
twelve in number, and represent the following nationalities: English,
American, French, Swiss, Norwegian, and the people of Finland.
First, in order of date, may be noticed the work of the Moravian
Brethren, which is chiefly carried on among the Hottentots and Kafirs.
Their chief station is Genadendal, eighty miles east of Cape Town, which
has several smaller stations grouped around it. Besides these, still
farther east, among the Kafir tribes, is the station of Shiloh, also
having a number of out-stations gathered round it.
The London Missionary Society follows with its eleven principal stations
and nine out-stations. This Society is now labouring in South Africa, in
Kafirland, Bechwanaland and Matabeleland. The Report for 1886 shows
sixteen English missionaries and sixty-five native preachers as engaged
in preaching and teaching, and as results, 1361 Church members. These
returns are however incomplete, and very much has occurred, through the
numerous wars and unsettled state of the country, to retard the progress
of missionary work.
Next comes the Wesleyan Missionary Society, who, commencing operations
at Cape Town in 1814, extended their stations round the coast from
Little Namaqualand to Zululand. They are also labouring among the
Barolongs in the Orange Free State, in Swaziland, and at the Gold
Fields at Barberton, in the Transvaal.
The Scotch Presbyterians are represented by the missions of the Free
Church of Scotland, and the United Presbyterian Church. These confine
their labours principally to British Kaffraria and Kafirland. The Free
Church has a high-class Institution at Lovedale for the training of a
native ministry and also for teaching the natives many of the useful
arts, and an improved system of agriculture. There is an efficient staff
of teachers, and in 1885, 380 pupils attended the Institution, of whom
seventy-one were Church members and ninety-one candidates or inquirers.
A similar institution has also been established among the Fingoes at
Blythswood in Fingoland.
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